Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Hot Crime Novels

"A tight, fast, and funny crime novel set amid the Newark riots of 1967. When a load of high octane heroin goes missing in the melee, criminals, cops, do-gooders, and lowlifes scramble to possess it. But the heroin has ideas of its own, leading its pursuers on a very un-merry, increasingly deadly chase." -Publisher

"Gibson’s elliptical, ever-evolving plot seems a marriage of Raymond Chandler complexity and Donald E. Westlake comic haplessness, but he imbues his characters with a kind of desperate humanity that is brilliantly played out when Manhattan goes dark in the famous 1967 blackout. The sense of time and place is wonderfully evocative, and The Old Turk’s Load will be a signal pleasure for crime-fiction aficionados" -Booklist

"When you find yourself rooting for the killer in a grisly crime novel,
you know you’re in the hands of a real writer. Every character in
Richard Lange’s ANGEL BABY feels like flesh and bone, even the ones who show up just to be killed.
The story hangs on the entwined fortunes of Rolando, a Tijuana crime
boss respectfully known as el Príncipe; his drug-addled wife, Luz; and
Kevin Malone, an American drifter who drives illegals across the Mexican
border." The New York Times

"A rising star.... Lange embraces classic noir in all its violence,
bleakness, and dark humor. He makes readers care about his flawed
characters and appreciate the odds that were stacked against them by the
circumstances of their upbringing. A film waiting to happen, this book
boasts memorable characters, evocative settings, and a suspenseful plot." Kirkus Reviews

"Sophie Brinkmann had no idea her former patient was an international crime lord. Hector Guzman had a Latin charm and easy smile she couldn't deny, so she agreed to a date...
Jens Vall is in Paraguay facilitating a delivery of very dangerous weapons when he's attacked by angry Russians. They think he stole their drugs...
Lars Vinge is a beat cop with a nasty drug habit he thought he kicked. He's given an important assignment that soon turns into deadly obsession...

All of their paths will collide in this turbo-charged, action-packed, highly sophisticated debut thriller that will set the world on fire." -Publisher

There is very little peace for a man with a body buried in his backyard. But it could always be worse. . . .

"More
than a year ago, mild-mannered Jason Getty killed a man he wished he’d
never met. Then he planted the problem a little too close to home. But
just as he’s learning to live with the undeniable reality of what he’s
done, police unearth two bodies on his property—neither of which is the
one Jason buried." -Publisher

“Three Graves Full is something special - an offbeat,
high-class, pacey mystery that blends black humor with dark lyricism,
and deft, intricate plotting with dead-on psychological insight. This is
a gem of a debut.” —Tana French, author of In the WoodsThe Accidental Pallbearer(M)
by Frank Lentricchia

"This series debut by the author of The Book of Ruth and The Italian
Actress is a high-art frenetic novel laced with black humor, one-liners,
puns, guns, Mafia assassinations, crooked police, and the closely
linked issues of loyalty and betrayal. The dissolute antihero Eliot
Conte was once an academic until he dangled UCLA's provost out a window.
Most professors are similarly inclined but show self-control. Returning
home to bleak Utica, NY, he has become an equally unorthodox PI.

When
Eliot's highly unlikely blood brother, Antonio Robinson, Utica's corrupt
black chief of police, enlists him to neutralize his deputy chief,
Eliot's investigation uncovers links to the 15-year-old case of a mob
assassination carried out by a last-minute replacement pallbearer
(anything but accidental!). Eliot is already running a personal probe of
a train passenger he witnessed assaulting the passenger's own child.
The two cases are linked, of course, in true noir fashion. Conte is a
cad, but his actions are guided by a moral compass, no matter how
skewed.

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